Spice up your living room with a few easy tricks

Create a fresh, fun and vibrant look in your living room that is affordable and easy to do over a weekend. Get the family to pitch in and declutter the room before you begin. Remove magazines, plants and accessories that look outdated. Once you have spruced up the room, it’s time to add on a few easy updates to jazz up your space.

Rearrange the layout

Reposition your existing furniture to give it a better flow and create better conversation areas. Walk through the house and borrow pieces from other rooms that will look good in the living room. A few clever changes are all you need to impress guests into thinking your living room underwent a complete makeover.

Edit accessories

Go through all your home accessories on display shelves, coffee tables and side tables. Remove pieces that are collecting dust and crowding the shelves. Keep only a small collection of your best loved pieces from your travels or with sentimental value. Display your accessories in groups; combine items that share similar colours, textures and character. Sometimes even a few simple items can look attractive as it is more about how you display it that really counts.

Rearrange artwork

Find new spaces for paintings you already have by moving something from one room into another. You’ll be surprised how a vibrant piece of tapestry hanging previously in your bedroom looks even better over your sofa in the living room. Mix and match old artwork with newer pieces and see how it breathes new life into different walls in the room.

Create an impressive gallery

Make a feature wall with your own collection of family portraits, travel photos and even mirrors. Select a large wall and plan how to group them in advance so they look stylish. To get an even more cohesive look, you might want to change some frames to the same colour. Be imaginative; you could also hang up your collection of wood carvings, masks or local handicrafts.

Bring in the greens

Plants and flowers add so much colour and freshness into the living room. Choose an indoor plant or two from your patio or balcony and keep them near where you have enough natural light. If you have only a small space you can pick up a few small succulents from a nursery that need little watering and maintenance.

Bring in colourful cushions and rugs

Add some cushions in vibrant colours, interesting textures and ethnic patterns to immediately spice up a neutral sofa or armchair. Have a theme and choose warm festive colours like orange, yellows and pinks or go for cooler shades in greens and blues. Match these to a throw rug that you can lay over your carpet and you will have created a more lively space for the family as well as guests to enjoy.